Cinderella's Dream
by ChocoboHead
Summary: Cissnei ends up having to go on a date with Reno for a fundraiser for the company. After hearing Cissnei recollect about her past with the redhead, Aerith intends to make everything perfect for her friend...she even gets Zack to help.


Groaning, I shoved my hands into my pockets while I still had access to them. Today, I had to be forced to sit all afternoon with Miss "I-Never-Had-A-Doll-When-I-Was-Little" and play dress up.

You see, I had given up on fashion and childish things ages ago. I mean, I read the magazines and stay informed, but I'm not into it as much as Aerith.

I pinched my lips tightly together as she twisted my hair up into a braid. She did this repeatedly, _five_…_stinking_…_times_… Finally, I just blurted out, "I don't want to look like you!"

She leaned down into my face, practically making me eat her hair braid that flopped into my mouth. "Don't you want to look pretty for tomorrow night, Cissnei?"

"No."

I pushed away from her. I didn't even want to go to this thing tomorrow night. Everyone else had a date and I had…_Reno_. Reno isn't a date! He's a twisted pervert. You don't seriously drag Reno along as a date…_even_ if he asks you. I don't know why he even asked me or why I even said '_yes'_ in the first place.

This entire "party" thing is crazy. I mean, seriously the whole, '_It's for charity_' thing as Zack so sweetly put it is _bogus_. Give me a break. This whole thing was just to get money for more stupid research for the Shinra labs—oh, sorry, so we could get even MORE mako into the SOLDIERs' systems.

One day, Zack is going to walk straight into Aerith's church, go into a corner, _AND GLOW IN THE DARK! _How much chemicals can one guy handle?

Oh! I forgot to mention this; Aerith Gainsborough is one of my dearest friends. She's kind and very clueless…I met her through her boyfriend, Zack Fair. Zack was my best friend way before I was friends with Aerith. He's one of the best guys in SOLDIER first class for Shin-ra Electric Power Company. He is also infused with too much mako that makes him freakishly strong and it makes his eyes have a special gleam that creeps out little kids.

I also happen to work for Shin-ra. I'm in a slightly different group called the Turks. We do all the dirty work for the company and…well, we get a slightly bigger paycheck than most employees because of that. Unfortunately, because of rank, Reno is my boss. Sad, I know…but…when I first met him I was already adopted into the Turks and he was just joining. He was so close to me in age we became best friends. Ah, he was so _cute_ when he used to be _normal_.

Aerith sighed, "Are you even a woman?"

"Well," I groaned, slumping down in the chair where I sat, "If you think about it, I was raised just about the same way Zack was. The only difference is that I _am_ a girl."

She laughed, "But you don't act female."

"I do so!" I grumbled.

"You don't act female _enough_," she retorted.

"What is your idea of '_female enough_' Aerith?" I snapped, "Pink dresses, ribbons, and flowers?"

"…_No_…" She mumbled.

I knew that was a total lie. Aerith loves that kind of junk. For me, as long as you looked like a girl, smelled like a girl, and had intelligence you were "female enough."

I found her playing with my hair again, pulling it up into pigtails, a ponytail, twisting it up…

"What's your dress look like?" She asked, stopping, "I decided I wanted to wear purple for the party."

Hearing that, I groaned; I forgot that a dress was necessary. Why did it have to be so formal? I know for sure none of the guys are going to dress up.

"I don't have a dress," I told her, "I don't own one."

"You don't own a dress?!" She looked sooo surprised. How much money does she think I make on average? How much time does she think I have to sew or shop? Thank you Zack for making me BFFs with your girlfriend. Thank you very much. He is _so dead_ now.

I shook my head, "I never needed one."

She nodded with a tiny gasp. "You can use one of mine! It's old and it's not very formal but I grew out of it years ago. You want it? It should fit you."

"Can I see it?"

A big smile brightened her entire face, she jumped up, "yes, yes!" She ran through her bedroom before almost passing her closet. She skidded to a stop in front of it.

"Here it is!" She shouted grabbing at the knobs on the door.

She shoved the wooden door open to show tons of extremely old and tiny dresses. For a normally organized person, Aerith sure did have a messy closet. A couple of boxes tumbled out onto the floor and she quickly shoved them back inside. I watched her skim the hangers before picking out an old blue dress. "Here you go." She flopped the faded thing out into my lap.

I stared down at the soft cotton fabric. She was right; it wasn't formal at all but…

"I used to wear stuff like this when I was little," I said quietly, fingering the hem of the dress.

"You did?"

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "Ironic, isn't it?" I laughed.

"What is?"

I looked down, "When I was first adopted by Shin-ra…they said I didn't have to wear my uniform at first…so I wore a dress just like this over a nice shirt. After time though, I started to like my uniform better. Reno thought I was funny…"

"He did?" She asked, pressing me on, "tell me!"

"He said I was too indecisive. I could've said the same for him. I remember way back when he was semi-normal…"

"Wha?

I sighed, fingering the delicate sleeves on the dress. The whole thing was a gorgeous faded midnight blue—my favorite color—and it seemed not to be too long. In fact, it seemed to be too short for Aerith's tastes. It probably just almost touches the knee on me.

"Have you ever noticed how Reno's eyes are blue?"

She nodded, "are you going anywhere with this?"

"I am," I told her, folding the dress over my arm, "his eyes are blue and his eyebrows are brown. Don't you think that is kind of strange for a redhead?"

She tilted her head, "I guess...I really never noticed."

"Well, when I first met Reno he was about…seventeen…he still wore his uniform correctly, he didn't tattoo his face, he didn't even dye his hair _once_…a pretty normal guy at first sight…but if you knew his personality like I did, nothing matched. He wasn't the type of person to be 'normal looking.' Over time, I guess he just changed a bit."

"What do you mean by 'change'?" She asked. "His personality? Did he become even more cynical?"

"Aerith, you cannot get any more cynical than Reno!" I retorted, "What I meant was…well, he never liked to follow anyone's rules. At first he bended the rules toward the uniform, it just says in the handbook that you have to wear it. Nothing says you have to wear all of it. So obviously, the tie went away. Then of course, since he wore his goggles a lot…he actually scarred his face when he got…" I trailed off, trying not to laugh.

"What? I want to know! Cissnei, tell me what happened!" Aerith yelled. Wow, she was _really_ into this…

"R-Reno…" I snickered, "h-he's eyelevel…at the wings of a lot of small aircraft. He walked right smack into the wing of an F-14. He was wearing his goggles down that day—thank goodness. The impact of the hit gave him scars under his eyes…at least he didn't crack his head open. He claimed he didn't see the plane! How the hell do you not see an airplane?! 'It was the narrow part' he said, 'I couldn't see it!' He was so stupid…" I laughed.

"Wow, so is that why there are tattoos under Reno's eyes?" Aerith asked.

"Yes," I answered, "because of his stupidity…and his greater stupidity to actually try and tattoo his face…there are _in fact_ tattoos on Reno's face to try and hide his scars. It worked…the scars are gone...sorta...and eventually he dyed his hair red to match the strange appearance of his face."

Aerith nodded, stretching, "you've really known Reno for a long time, huh?"

"I have, haven't I?" I laughed back. "He is really my best friend. I was there for all of it."

Aerith pushed me, "see? You thought going to this thing with Reno would be bad!"

"I-I never said anything about that!"

"But I _could tell_ by the way you were acting!"

I turned away from her and copied her voice, "just like you are so like _totally_ excited about getting to go on a formal date with Zack?" I clicked the 'K' on the end of his name, just like she does when she's excited about something.

"I don't talk like that!"

I stuck my tongue out. "Yes Aerith, you do." At that, I pushed her onto the floor and both of us burst out laughing like two retarded teenage girls.

I got my chance to look up at the clock. "Oh my gosh! Is that seriously the time?!" It was so close to midnight, it wasn't even funny. I got up and gathered up the blue dress in my arms. "I'm sorry! I gotta go!"

"You can stay over tonight, Cissi! Your apartment is so far away! Plus, it's dark!" Aerith offered.

"It's okay. If I stayed here, I wouldn't be able to sleep. Sorry."

* * *

It was so cool that evening. I could even see some stars outside. I breathed in the cool air as I walked to my home. It actually felt nice on my face. It was a nice change of temperture from Aerith's warm sauna of a house.

You see, Shin-ra supplies most of their good employees housing. Most Turks prefer the housing supplied by the company because most of us don't have big families…or have any family for that matter.

Plus, we got some good apartments, too. They aren't small.

When I got to the door, I noticed the neighbor was still partying. Next thing I knew, out stumbled a very drunken and a very confused SOLDIER, first class.

I leaned down and smiled at the black-haired idiot in front of me, "Hello Zack."

"H-Hey…Cis-Cissssnei. Ah, um...w-where am I?" His sentences were so slurred…he'd obviously been drinking a lot.

"You're in front of _my_ apartment, Zack. Why don't you go back into the neighbor's house, okay?"

He nodded before I shoved him back into the room from where he came. I looked inside and smiled at the redhead inside on the couch.

"I left a gift for ya, Reno. Your turn to baby-sit," I hissed in at him.

"Aw, don't do that! I dunno what to do with it!"

As soon as he said that, 'It' passed out on the floor. I just stood there over him and pointed as if that just answered everything.

"Got a question for you, Re," I said, "Zack gets drunk on two drinks. How come it takes fifty to get you drunk?"

He just grinned, "I'm special!"

"You sure are." I slammed the door and walked back into my apartment. He makes me so mad sometimes!

Midnight, and he's still awake. Surprising…he's usually passed out by now…

* * *

**_Wow! Chapter one! I have been wanting to write a story about Cissnei for a long time now and I wasn't sure who to pair her with because she's so young! Eventually, I just decided to pair her with Reno because they seem perfect together, right? He's so lazy and she's so high-strung. This is somewhat a "future, what-if" kind of story because I wanted to throw the dorky blonde MP (A.K.A. Cloud Strife) into the mix. So, I thought, "hey, this would probably work out if Seph never went crazy!" And thus, Reno and Cissnei have ended up going on a date together... DON'T KNOCK MY LOGIC! IT WORKS OUT SOMEHOW! So...this story might continue after the date. Might not. Who knows?_**

**_ Woah, I haven't made Zack a drunk in a loooong time! It was fun. I hope to make him drunk again sometime...Zack's a funny drunk. Well, I don't own any of the main characters because if I did, well, Zack would've stayed alive and would really screw up Advent Children BIG TIME. C'mon, like you couldn't see that happening!_**


End file.
